Stay-At-Home Parents Need Insurance, Too

If you are a stay-at-home parent, you know your household can not function without you. A large misconception for stay-at-home parents is that, because they essentially earn $0, they have no worth. Nothing can be further from the truth. In fact, many reputable industry sources illustrate that a stay-at-home parent “earns” anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 annually from all of the things they do to keep the household functioning. Salary.com for instance state that a stay-at-home mom (ok, Dads, you are worth this, too.) is worth over $140,000 in 2016. No different than an official earning parent, you need to protect your worth in case of the unexpected. Yes, stay-at-home parents need insurance protection, too.

Why Do Stay-At-Home Parents Need Insurance?

You only need to understand the magnitude of your worth by thinking of scenarios if you were no longer around. What would your family’s situation be if you suddenly died or became disabled? How would your surviving spouse carry on? How would it make you feel if your surviving family struggled? What are the implications of doing nothing at all?

Fact is, unexpected death, sickness, and disability can happen to anyone. These unfortunate situations don’t discriminate: black, white, employed, unemployed, working parent, non-working parent, old, young, rich, poor. Unexpected death and disability affects anyone. If, as a stay-at-home parent or a spouse of one, you want the best for your family, there are simple ways to put a plan together to protect yourself and family.

The aforementioned questions can be scary to answer. Those scenarios can be very real and painful; however, your answers paint a clear picture of what could happen upon your unexpected death or disability. If it seems scary, don’t worry; it doesn’t have to be this way.

Stay-At-Home Parents Need Disability Insurance

A long-term disability can occur in 1 and 3 adults. That is frequent. In fact, a long-term disability can occur more often than an unexpected death. Disability insurance will pay a portion of your salary in the event of a long-term disability. “Wait”, you say, “I don’t earn any income. How can I obtain disability insurance?”

Good question.

Luckily, several carriers recognize the value of stay-at-home parents and offer disability insurance even though there are no official earnings. Most carriers offer a maximum of up to $1,000 per month. While that may not seem like a lot to you, think about what you could do with $1,000? Stated another way: would your family situation be different if you had an additional $1,000 per month when you were disabled? If the answer is yes, you need disability insurance. Thankfully, it is generally inexpensive.

Stay-At-Home Parents Need Life Insurance

This is an obvious one. Like long-term disability, unexpected death does not discriminate. It can happen to anyone, any religion, race, gender, age or working status. We don’t have to go into detail on what family life would look like if you were not around.

Where many stay-at-home parents go wrong is that they do not obtain enough coverage on themselves, feeling that because they earn nothing, they don’t need a lot of life insurance. WRONG! They may obtain $100,000 of coverage, but is that really enough? We just described several, real scenarios above which could happen. A $100,000 would deplete rather quickly.

Our advice: use our life insurance questionnaire. If you click on the link, you will see we already input the salary. You can see, without additional need, you may have a life insurance need of $700,000! Did you want to include a mortgage payoff? College savings? If you have small children, the life insurance money can be used to help out your surviving spouse with day care, a house cleaner, etc. Did you want to include that? Obviously, the final number is different than what we provided, but this questionnaire will help you really think about your worth. At least you will see your worth is much greater than the standard $100,000 death benefit coverage.

Other Insurances

Disability and life insurance are the foundational insurances a stay-at-home parent needs. (Health insurance is needed as well, but it is assumed coverage is obtained through the working spouse.) These are non-negotiable. After establishing these insurances, other insurances which could fit a family situation include:

Accident insurance – it is incorrect to think that health insurance pays for everything. It does not. Accident insurance will help pay for deductibles and out-of-pocket costs in relation to an accident, both on and off the job. Have active family and kids? Strenuous job? This type of insurance is typically inexpensive with good benefits to pay for these out-of-pockets costs. They are 24/7 coverage, which means both on and off the job. Your spouse and family are covered. too. So, if your son hurts his ankle playing soccer, most likely the trip to the ER, x-ray, and other services are covered.

Critical illness – these plans generally cover cancer, heart attack, and stroke. Many more carriers are covering additional illnesses and conditions such as MS, Parkinson’s, etc. Like accident insurance, critical illness will pay upon a covered illness, usually in lump sum format. Some are policies will provide an ongoing benefit for wellness, treatments, etc.

Once disability and life insurance are in place, these insurances can be considered.

Conclusion

It is clear that stay-at-home parents need insurance. Disability and life insurance are the foundational insurances. Once these are established, the family can look into additional insurances for protection. We at My Family Life Insurance can help stay-at-home parents determine the coverage – and the right coverage – they need. Feel free to contact us. We have helped many stay-at-home parents secure the insurance they need for peace-of-mind.

Already know what you need? You can apply yourself!

I acknowledge and understand that by contacting My Family Life Insurance through any contact form, “Submit,” "Display Rates," "Apply Yourself" or other form means, I am providing my express consent that I may be contacted by My Family Life Insurance via e-mails, SMS, phone calls and prerecorded messages at any phone number(s) that I provide, even if the number is a wireless number or on any federal or state do-not-call list. I understand that calls may be placed using automated technology, and that consent is not a requirement for purchase. Your information will NOT be sold and will remain private.